Still tearing through all the campaigns in
AotS Escalation. So very happy with that release...its my "modern RTS done right" fix at the moment. I love setting up my armies and working choke points and plateaus for tactical advantages against what is to me a very competent.
The standard Ashes is solid as well and will have faster rounds. I play that when my son and I don't feel like SupCom 2. Ashes fills that easy to get into and fun to play area that we both can enjoy for a little MP fun. Whereas Escalations is more complex, has more units and has tactical zoom (yes!)...is more akin to SupCom: FA. More of everything and execute better overall but does have more complexity longer games. Oh and having WASD camera panning support is a nice added touch as I don't use keyboard keys to build...I've always been a mouse clicker for such tasks. Lol.
I should add that this game stresses my GPU more than any other game. Period. Around 30CPU, but high GPU loads and several GB memory load. I'm running 1080p @ ultra w/4X AA. My FPS do dive into the 40s in some.of the largest battles. But damn does this game look good and play so well...makes me happy to have a system that can run it at this level.
That said my kids i3 4160/8GB DDR3/GTX 750Ti system handles Ashes at 1080p far better than expected. More at medium/high settings with no AA...the game still looks absolutely amazing. Though the biggest hindrance is the long initial loading times off the 10-yr old WD 640GB HDD...that's getting replaced with a newer and faster 1TB HDD..which should help. But compared to my 960GB SSD...takes FOREVER to get started. But this is the kind of title that loads resources before you hit the main menu, so starting an actual game is actually quite fast. I can appreciate that.
Tough to deny all the resources this title wants just for an RTS, but then if you're an RTS fan, and love massive battles with good physics and effects, look no further. Especially if you want something new! I'll had it to StarDock and Oxide, Ashes/Escalation are turning out quite nicely. Original
Ashes is on sale for $20 as well. Depending on what you want from an RTS, that might do the trick and is slated to get a lot of the changes made in the initial Escalation launch. So UI changes and supposedly the tactical zoom should migrate over.
Beyond that, all the Star Citizen talk on TPU recently has me going back through 2.5 since I really hadn't given it a thorough shakedown. Having lots of fun in my Aurora LN. I had to double take at how light of a load this game is...granted it leads my CPU on average more than anything else I play...overall system load is lighter. Kudos. Now if we can get to 2.6 and eventually 3.0 soon...I'm eager for some fresh SC experiences.
And now I'm finally able to adjust to the new SC control scheme since I haven't played Elite or Evochron in a few weeks so I'm not pushing the wrong keys as often! It was nice when I had all 3 fairly close...but now to change SC's control scheme would be quite the undertaking...so I'm gonna see if I can put some time into it and see if I can either deal or get comfortable with completely re-configuring the control scheme. I'm hoping the latter so I don't screw myself when I go back to Elite! Either way, having fun in SC cutting my teeth on missions and combat again. Going to try some races too because why not, I never really got into them before.
Lasly...I've been playing
Battlezone98 Redux. Picked it up on sale a few days ago. I loved this game back in the day but my PC always struggled to run it...I ended up giving it away to someone whom could play it. Fast forward almost 20 years and this game is in my Steam collection and has been very entertaining and challenging! It reminds you of how much simpler things were back then, yet in the same breath the challenge is real...mostly you gotta figure out what time you need to be where and with what backing you...but that's part of the fun really is figuring it out and then executing it with efficiency. Haven't tried MP yet...but so far really really enjoying my time in this classic.
I gotta admit I've enjoyed a few Cold War "what if" games...World in Conflict, Battlezone, Wargames, Freedom Fighters, etc. This one really was fun because it had such a different take and back then mixing RTS and FPS was still a new idea...the way they did it still works very well and is very playable. Its age does show with everything about it, but at the same time it is very serviceable. Back in the 90s, when I wasn't trying to play this I was playing Tanarus...RIP...
though i have bought fallout 4 and mafia 3 super cheap, but havent had intrest to get into yet.
